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Extinct vs Defunct - What's the difference?

extinct | defunct |

As adjectives the difference between extinct and defunct

is that extinct is extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc. while defunct is deceased, dead.

As a verb defunct is

to make defunct.

As a noun defunct is

the dead person (referred to).

extinct

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (dated) Extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc.)
  • Poor Edward's cigarillo was already extinct .
  • No longer used; obsolete, discontinued.
  • * Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
  • *
  • Indeed the very fact that the English spelling system
    writes in there'' as two words but ''therein'' as one word might be taken as suggest-
    ing that only the former is a productive syntactic construction in Modern
    English, the latter being a now extinct construction which has left behind a
    few fossil remnants in the form of compound words such as ''thereby
    .
  • No longer in existence; having died out.
  • The dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
  • (vulcanology) No longer actively erupting.
  • Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct .

    Synonyms

    * dead

    Antonyms

    * (no longer alight) burning * (having died out) extant * active, dormant

    defunct

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Deceased, dead.
  • * Shakespeare
  • defunct organs
  • * Byron
  • The boar, defunct , lay tripped up, near.
  • No longer in use, inactive.
  • (computing) Specifically, of a program: that has terminated but is still shown in the list of processes because the parent process that created it is still running and has not yet reaped it. See also zombie, zombie process.
  • (business) No longer in business or service.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make defunct.
  • Noun

  • The dead person (referred to).
  • * 1817 September , in Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine , volume 1, page 617: